Interesting scientific stuff

bagitha Love your science forum.I've always been fascinated by patterns in nature.Somewhere I've got a folder of cuttings from my pharmacy journals of electron microscope photos of molecules,bacteria.so varied and colourful.I must dig it out.
Your photos are superb!.I only have a pocket digital camera but love taking photos of wee creatures,spiders,caterpillars,moths,etc as well as flower buds,ferns,fungi - and amazing skies!

Sand dunes on Titan:

www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2012-021

I've started listening to a series of Open Yale lectures given by Stephen Stearns. They are on the subject of evolutionary biology and I think this link will take you to them. Lecture 1 is down the page a bit:

videolectures.net/site/search/?q=stearns

If you're interested in some other part of science (or parts of the humanities or 'woteva'), there are plenty of other open resources. What a great idea the idea of an open university was. Thanks, Harold Wilson.

Interesting comments from the readers about convection and the way that water moves around in the lakes because of differing temperatures - I've learned something new there bags. Thanks - I really enjoy reading these scientific features you post x

Here is a fun thing. The comment by Tony Marshallsay will make sense to other sailors and perhaps to a few more. It made me smile, and it has the Ockham's razor appeal.

www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328475.200-mystery-of-the-moving-antarctic-lakes.html

"Look Elsewhere For The Answer
Fri Jan 20 10:38:09 GMT 2012 by Tony Marshallsay

I think the fact that the lakes are moving faster than the ice sheet would come as no surprise to a sailor used to tacking across the wind"

OGM - I think Brian Cox makes it all very accessible too - but the invisible "report" by the encycloppedia Britannica that I was quoting below "found" that 7% of people in their survey thought Brian Cox was the author of Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, also known as the Principia.

He looks pretty good to be that old.

He has a device implanted in his mouth that works by using a muscle, but apparently his muscle strength is fading and he may not be able to use his synthesised voice for much longer.

Listened to Stephen Hawking on the car radio on Friday and was struck by the 'sameness' of what he said, come to think of it how does he speak? I know it's some sort of voice synthesiser(?) but how are his thoughts translated into speech?
Professor Brian Cox gets my vote for making astronomy/astro-physics interesting AND understandable!
Bagitha saw the item, amazing how life can exist in such inhospitable circumstances.

New species found around sea vents near Antarctica:

www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/plos-wd122811.php

For patterns try Fibanacci numbers.think I spelt that right.

Forgot the link, sorry. www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8997529/Britains-biggest-science-misconceptions-revealed.html

When I read a journalist's version of some interesting research, I like to take a look at the actual research. Not that I can always understand the detail, but there is usually more meat and less fantasy, and you can see how the research was carried out.

So an article in the science pages of the DT on a report by the Encyclopedia Britannica on common scientific misconceptions (From a list of options, 16% of 1,000 people believed radioactivity was discovered by Dr Emmett Brown, a character from the Back to the Future films - about 1 in 6) sent me looking for the report.

I wanted to see whether they quoted a significance rating for this finding, compared with what could have been achieved quite randomly. How many options were there, and what were they? After all, the EB is a respected institution, isn't it? They would not publish a misleading result.

It does not appear to be accessible. Apparently EB is launching "Britannica Pathways" to help science teachers correct these misconceptions - for a cost I assume? (Are science teachers not supposed to teach proper science anyway?)

Surely one of the ways to improve everyone's scientific knowledge is to make facts available to all, and for journalists to make sure they find out and pass on the quality of the research as well as the astounding conclusions?

Yes, I saw that, too. I hope the solution to this problem is developed quickly. Last summer, I had a colony of bees using one of my raised vegetable beds and didn't want to disturb them, but wanted advice. They weren't honey bees. I contacted the local beekeepers asociation, who were helpful. During this time, I discovered that there is a vast network of local beekeepers who, like the bees, are busily doing their bit to help the honey bee population without making any sort of a fuss. They sent me a list of local beekeepers in case I was interested in joining their group, and I was astonished to see how many people keep bees in urban areas, using any spare land they can find. One woman lives in a high rise block of flats and keeps her bees in the compound that the caretaker has. She says they gather nectar from miles away so it doesn't matter that they have an inner city beehive. Fascinating!

New research about what is killing honey bees. Very interesting and there is a link within this article to the academic paper in PLoS ONE. I have two objections to the writing of the SciAm article: the use of the word zombie is daft and "colony collapse" does not need the word 'disorder' after it. <Pedantic grrr>

blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/01/03/zombie-fly-parasite-killing-honeybees/

Thanks bagitha watched and enjoyed. Did all the drawing sfor the OG's college thesis on spherical geometry... drew circles arcs cones etc 'til I was blue in the face!
Also watched the David Attenborough prog last night , superb camera work and a lovely simple explanation as to why the Polar regions are warming faster than the rest of the globe.
Did I hear, on the radio, that Shetland Islanders will get the best view of the eclipse on Saturday?
Heard the forecast for you for today.... batten down the hatches, keep safe.

Moon eclipse 10 December:

science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/02dec_lunareclipse/

Oh dear... it seems to me that my comment,above, is vindicated! Prof Brown has his own agenda whilst criticising others for theirs.
Isn't it good to have dissent, to question and to evaluate, to wonder, perhaps cynically, why certain conclusions are reached. I'm glad we do that and don't blindly accept everything we are told.
As you know, I put my trust in the IPCC who aim to reflect a range of views and expertise.
They also state that review is an essential part of their process thus ensuring an objective and complete assessment of current information.
I know different views are held by other people and I respect their right to hold these views.
Prof Brown makes some interesting points.
I'm losing the plot.... had a busy day!
WOW indeed!

Bagitha, thanks.... have read half of it, OG wants an early supper.... vital Bridge games to play!!!!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/nasa-telescope-finds-earthlike-planet-6272679.html

Wow! What if.........?

Sorry, I hadn't realised that I'd omitted to 'blue up' the link.

wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/02/foia-is-not-enough-why-not-legally-mandate-transparency-in-climate-research-a-modest-proposal/

Bagitha... I think I've read the article but I'm not very good at finding references unless they are highlighted blue and I can click on that!
I also found, in the same area, an item titled:
The Science is Scuttled.
Having read that, which is also interesting, I can only conclude that Scientists can be an unpleasant bunch and that rivalries exist in their world too!
P.S. loved the bit about Einstein!!!

I think I completely misunderstood the article. I didn't engage brain before posting . Apologies for the rubbish.

Hope you find the essay interesting at least, OGM. There's nothing revolutionary in it really. What he's suggesting already applies to certain areas of science that have particular bearing on the public, e.g. drug testing. However, he says it better than I could.

Did anyone see that amazing programme on BBC4 a while ago about snow and how it forms? I wish I could remember what I'd seen [I often watch BBC4 when I'm half asleep or, waking up on the sofa to find the tv's still on and there's a really interesting programme being repeated in the early hours]. I think, as children, one of our first wonderments of the world around us was seeing snow crystals [and cutting them out of paper at school round Christmas time]. When we didn't have snow for what seemed like forever, I used to scrape the 'snow' from the inside of the freezer, put it in a container and the kids would make a snowman who would then live in the freezer for a long time. There's something very satisfying about symmetry, is there not? [think kaleidoscopes...]Something I keep meaning to do with my grandson is to put food colouring in milk and then add the 'magic ingredient' of washing up liquid. My kids used to love that. Sorry; I'm meandering in an attempt to put off more mouse searching.

As a primary school teacher (retired) one of my mantras when teaching certain numeracy lessons was: look for the pattern!
Will look up your reference later, Bagith, am wondering whether I will enjoy reading it ???????